BroadVision Personalizes Opodo
BroadVision, Inc. will provide the personalization power for Opodo — a new London-based online travel service created as a joint venture between Aer Lingus, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, KLM and Lufthansa. BroadVision® e-business applications, such as BroadVision One-To-One® Enterprise, will allow for content management and personalized 24/7 service for Opodo’s customers.
Other players that are involved with the new travel site include: system integrator Sapient who will implement the BroadVision-based site and also integrate BroadVision applications with a travel booking system from Amadeus; call center management and travel booking fulfillment from TRX, Inc.; and hosting by Energis.
Opodo will offer a comprehensive travel service tailored for the European consumer, with independent sites serving each country. Consumers will be able to access competitively priced travel products including flights from over 480 airlines, hotel bookings from over 54,500 hotel properties, 23,500 car rental locations worldwide and travel insurance. Additionally, Opodo will provide travel-related content such as destination guides, interactive maps and products that are relevant to each country market. The nine airlines expect Opodo to become the market leader in European online travel with an initial launch in Germany, UK and France and later across Europe between 2002 and 2003.
“Opodo will offer consumers a wealth of local knowledge and a truly Pan-European approach to make Opodo the number one online travel service in Europe. Opodo aims to be a low cost distribution channel with the objective of providing consumers with choice, service and low fares,” said Opodo CEO Giovanni Bisignani. “We selected BroadVision software because it offers us the high performance, scalability and internationalization features we need to realise our vision for Opodo.”
Previously known as Online Travel Portal Limited, Opodo joins a growing list of travel industry companies that have adopted BroadVision e-business solutions — Air Canada, Airtours, TAM Airlines, Club Med, Eurostar, Forte Hotel Group and Rand McNally.